Approximately 1:00 PM


Zel had been working hard and long on his geneology project for Care of Magical Creatures, knowing that it was the big project of the semester for that class. After the class where he had seen the Jarvey/Ramidreju hybrid. It got him thinking about the intelligence an animal must have to speak (after all, Jarveys were well known for being sassy little buggers), and after much studying various magical snapping turtles, he had acquired four eggs from a shop. Two  eggs, he did not experiment with. Besides the two that he did not put extra charms on, the other two were altered with a few charms intended to increase intelligence and alter how they were made up. Thankfully, the eggs that he had purchased had a remarkably short incubation period.

When the four eggs had hatched, at first they seemed the same. The two he had experimented on seemed to have better vision and were slightly faster than the normal snapping turtles. After a week, he noticed that the turtles he experimented on were reacting to human speech, though they had yet to speak.  He wondered if he had messed up the experiment-- the turtles didn't seem much smarter, nor was their size any different than normal turtles their age. They were small enough for an average sized person to carry in the palm of their hand.

Zel was getting ready to walk to Hagrid’s hut to ask the half-giant what he could do to help his project move along—it looked like it wasn’t going very well, and Zel didn’t want to present a failure to the rest of the class. Hell, he didn’t want to present at all.  Zelig carried the two turtle experiments in a see through container with plenty of holes for air and some vegetation and fresh water at the bottom. As he walked, he was careful not to spill the water or tossle the turtles too much.

He was nearly at Hagrid’s Hideaway when he saw (oh crap.) Naomi Foley.

Naomi Foley had intimidated Zel ever since he first met her. In fact, Zel had often times gone out of his way to hide from her, though she never seemed to notice.

He couldn’t just  get to Hagrid without first getting past Naomi, so he smiled weakly at her, hoping she’d leave him alone.

After their test at the beginning of the month there was suddenly a new slew of toddlers crawling around Hagrid's abode, and they still seemed to be adapting to their new surroundings. Apparently creatures had to be made as wary of the forest as Hogwarts students had to be--even if Naomi wasn't one of them.

So she was down at Hagrid's Hideaway trying to figure out the diet of her new companion, as well as feeding Veronica's creature because she was too busy chasing the well sculpted tails of the opposite gender--or something.

Naomi was in a long-sleeved tunic that draped over a pair of shorts, while her feet were caked in mud as she walked around Hagrid's tree and hauled a sturdy makeshift woven straw basket of a colorful mixture of overgrown veggies, fruits, and some normal-sized fish she caught. The professor let her pick some food from his garden as long as she picked some for him. But as she went around to put some food away for the half-giant professor she caught sight of Zel Trumble--the infamous werewolf outed by Figaro and his big mouth. It wasn't something she'd ever notice anyway, she never seemed to be in the same spot as the Hufflepuff at any given time--so she hardly noticed him otherwise.

The witch's green stare critically fell over the boy's hairy visage before her eyes landed on the sharp-angled turtles, then her gaze met his eyes as her voice calmly rolled on, "You taking 'dem flippers to Professor Hagrid, Luna Moth?" she motioned a hand toward the massive tree before giving a helpless shrug,"He's out taking 'di hogs[1] for a flight."

Suddenly one of the turtles made a weird noise, like a coo-ing baby trying to form their mouth around words. Naomi dropped her gaze to the turtles before she  arched a brow and cast a suspicious stare towards the Hufflepuff.

1.	The flying piglets he found at the start of the term

Shit. Naomi was staring at him.  Zel squeaked. She made him nervous, in a bad way. In the way that made him want to crawl to the Hufflepuff common room and squeeze under his bed. He was skinny enough, though he was so tall that his legs would probably stick out, tripping any roommates who were not paying attention. “I-I am taking them to th-the professor.” He said quietly, his words strained as if it had taken him an incredible amount of effort to enunciate them. He was about to say more,  but at the words ‘luna moth’ the turtles started making strange noises.

Zel glanced down at the turtles. Why did Luna Moth bug them so much? Yes, he didn’t look like a moth—his skin was white, not green. He let out a nervous laugh, but then one of the turtles looked at Naomi dramatically and said, quite clearly—“Well—WELL. You… Spongy eye offending dogfish!” The other turtle  made a small sound in agreement.

The prefect was so startled that he nearly threw the turtles at Naomi, fumbling with the box. Luckily, the turtles were unharmed. “S-Sorry, I’m sure they didn’t mean—“

“I meant it!” It interrupted Zel. To be honest, he did not really know what to say. Apparently his experiments had worked, but not in the way he expected. Zel slowly looked at Naomi, hoping that she’d just let it be and move on. He doubted it’d happen, even though it was Hogwarts, it wasn’t every day you were insulted by a turtle.

Naomi let a half-lidded gaze fall on the turtles as she pursed her lips in complete confusion. Naomi wasn't even attempting to wrap her mind around how the insult pertained to her--she was still trying to discern how anything other than a first year could come up with such a ridiculous mashup of words. As the other seemed to make an agreeing noise the Slytherin couldn't help it.

A smile broke against her lips and she bowed her head away from the Hufflepuff as she attempted to stifle a snort. Then the turtles went on and insulted Trumble. What on earth did he do to the little critters?

The witch rolled her lips together and looked back at Zel as she recovered her composure. "No I'm sorry," a white smile gleamed from her lips, "I didn't realize you created a pair of pocket-sized mock turtles," her lilt rolled a conservatively amused tone around her words as she gestured towards the snapping turtle's tiny beaks, "Please, tell me you've proven whether 'deir bark or bite is worse."

Despite the smile on her lips and the amused glint in her eye, Naomi was completely serious, and despite her occlumency lessons, it was the best she could awful the jittery Hufflepuff--aside from keeping her hair one solid jet black color.

He looked at his turtles. At the moment, they seemed like their bark could be worse than their bite, but they were also snapping turtles. He wouldn’t want to be bitten by one of those. Naomi’s reaction was not what he had expected-- he thought that she would flip out or bully him until he started crying or something. “Um.” He shifted anxiously, “I- I think they... I’m not sure.”  The turtles, apparently, did not take too kindly to being called ‘pocket sized.’ Even if they were pocket sized.

One of them practically glared at Naomi, “Who are you calling pocket sized, you inbred god-botherer?!” The other one let out a small huffing noise in agreement. “Yeah, you grandpa-climbing sheep lover!”

Zel wasn’t sure how the last one was an insult, but he chalked it up to the turtles being young, and not quite knowing what words were actually insulting, and which simply did not make sense. He looked down at Naomi, absolutely mortified. “I-I’m sorry. I-I’m sure you don’t climb grandfathers.” He mumbled, a faint tint of pink appearing on his cheeks. This was awful. He just wanted to crawl back to the Hufflepuff common room and hide in a corner. He wanted to curse the day he decided that turtles needed to be intelligent.

Naomi just watched the creatures quietly with some reserved sense of glee, before her eyes landed on the embarrassed Hufflepuff. She hummed a short chuckle at his apology before she shrugged the straw basket higher on her shoulder, laced her arms together, and chided the Hufflepuff, "Do you even know what 'dat means?" She paused for a minute, waiting for an answer before she gave the correct one--or the only one that currently mattered.

She hugged a shoulder to her cheek as she casually answered, "I don't."

Her slender hand then snaked apart to rest on her hips before she let her eyes fall on the turtles again, "'Dey should live in 'di lake," she began a smooth matter-of-fact tone, "In a hundred years they'd be like 'dem crotchety pairs 'dat don't do anything save yell at you all day long because they've got not'ing else to do." A smirk revealed part of a smug smile. She really couldn't result picking on the little things. It was probably the only thing saving Zel from Naomi picking on him. "Maybe 'dey'll learn some better comebacks and you'll learn a t'ing or two about zingers." Well almost.

Finally she let her smile fade away as she regarded Trumble more seriously, realizing that the boy's embarrassment most likely stemmed from surprise, someone like Trumble would figure out how to quiet little critters like the turtles, if he was afraid they might get him into some trouble. With more caution Naomi added, "Or you can put 'dem in 'di garden."

The witch then held her stare up on the boy's face, watching and waiting for his next reaction to her--or the turtles, as they seemed to be doing the most damage to the Hufflepuff's nerves.

“I don’t know what anything they say means.” Zel insisted weakly. “I-I just think they’re being rude.”

“YOUR FACE IS RUDE!” One of the turtles exclaimed, while the other one glared at Naomi. How dare she insult them. Who did this person think she was? Didn’t she recognize them as magnificent beasts who could snap her fingers off if they wanted to? “You- You’re just a  horse-poking tree-taming shrew!”  It said indignantly, glaring at Naomi with intense hatred. If turtles could glare.  Zel wasn’t sure if being a tree tamer was an insult. He wished he could tame whomping willows, that’d be pretty neat.

“You guys—could you just… Stop insulting her?” He asked feebly, realizing that they probably wouldn’t stop. They already had built up an irrational loathing for the Slytherin. 

Both turtles looked up at Zel. “Fat kidneyed miscreant!” One screamed, as the other said “Be quiet, you spleeny malnourished barnacle!”

Zel whimpered and at Naomi and mouthed the words, ‘help me.’

Rude. That was a term that came and went in the Slytherin house and was subjected to family pride, cliques, groups, social circles--what a maze. So when Zel referred to his turtles as such Naomi merely nodded her head with a dull,"Uh huh."

Another round of insult brought about another snerk from the tan girl before she averted her eyes and began to play with her basket while the boy attempted to negotiate with the turtles. Naomi occupied her thoughts with what sort of diet to make her creature when the Hufflepuff whimpered.

With an arching eyebrow Naomi slowly raised and steadied her gaze on Trumble, who seemed to silently plead for her help. Her eyes dodged to the side in frozen confusion before she looked at the boy with a shake of her head. What was she suppose to do?

Finally, her lilting voice broke the silence, "Why don't chyou teach 'dem how to be happy and catankerous?" she stepped to the side of the boy and quietly added, "Else you might need a silencing charm 'dat can work on turtles."